Reign Of Fire Poem by Bhaskar Rabha

The chronicle of fire has devoured too many
a country
Too many a time has fire killed itself by
Gnawing at its own thigh
Fire that repels cold
Becomes master of a land when
It rears its ugly head out of the ravages of time
The present dissolves
And ablaze embraces the future
Then from one home to the other
The familiar neighborhood to the county
The cities to the entire land
The beloved shaping earth metamorphoses into breeding ground
Of fire
And each one of us becomes watchman of the crematory
Fire counts not its kind
Nor does it of its secret bastions
When fire is law
It comes out of its heaven
And congratulates itself
Then streaks of fire on the road
Day turns into ashes
Fire makes mirth at midnight
And half charred hangs a moribund moon

You ancient light
Set our pens aflame
And make us a march of fire
To ward off this tyrant of a fire

: : Bhaskar Rabha, Translated by Jibeswar Boro